Winding Down

I can’t deny it – I am looking forward to having some time off work for the festive period. One more day and then I get ten glorious lie-ins. One more day of getting up early, and leaving the house when it’s still dark to trudge to the station in the cold. One more commute in and out of London, and then a rest until 4 January.

Officially the building closes at 3pm on Christmas Eve, but staff are usually encouraged to knock off work around noon. Many commuters, of course, have taken the whole week off, as the emptiness of my train carriage in the morning testifies (it’s not empty on the way back – it seems all those people are going shopping in the West End instead of going to work). And in the run-up to the festive season, it’s difficult to get much work done. The expense claims I got authorised today will not get settled until January, because our accounts team are all on leave. Most of the emails I have sent this week are unlikely to get responses until the New Year – I’ve just been getting Out of Office messages.

Tomorrow I think I need to put on my Festive Face and accept that Christmas is here. Perhaps not much work will get done, but we might get a mince pie and a festive tipple or two before the office closes for the holidays – and in my mind it’s worth going to work just for that.

However you choose to spend the holiday season, I hope it’s peaceful and happy for you. Me, I shall be working on my edits. But at least I can do it in the comfort of my home, with wine and chocolate in close proximity. And of course, I don’t have to get out of bed at 6.15am. That’s a definite plus.